


All For Me

by Casandraelf



Category: 7th Stand User, ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 | JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Character Torture, F/M, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 3: Stardust Crusaders, Suicide Attempt, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-11-06 18:45:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11042067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Casandraelf/pseuds/Casandraelf
Summary: A girl's attempted suicide leads to an unexpected change, one that does far more than just save her life.





	1. Live For Me

It had all led up to this. All of the pain, the misery, the sadness, it all brought Reika Kageyama to the roof of her school. With dull eyes, she peered over the edge of the roof, imagining herself leaping off the edge and falling to her death. She knew it would hurt, but living hurt even more. After all, everything seemed to be going wrong for her. Her mother, Seika, had unknowingly been pushing for her to be the girlfriend of her high school stalker, a nerdy boy named Hayato who was more than a little creepy. She was bullied daily for things she had zero control over, from her short height and childish build to her gloomy demeanor, the latter being made worse by everything she endured. To top it all off she had not one, but two reminders of her failings, and they took the forms of her older sister and younger brother, her mother's golden children who she, the black sheep, the living failure, was constantly compared to.

 

_A moment of agony, then it'll all be over,_ she thought as she stared at the ground below.  _Nobody's gonna miss me. Nobody will care. Mom'll finally be happy, since her mistake of a child will be gone. All I want is to be noticed for reasons other than you running my love life. I'll be at peace, since maybe my next life will be happier._

Her school shoes were off, leaving the girl in her socks. A folded note lay on top of them, a final message of despair and regret for those who cared. She had prepared for this, so why couldn't she do it? Why couldn't she just climb over the edge and throw herself off? Did she want to be stopped? To have someone give a fuck about her worthless existence? Or was she scared? All she did was stare over the edge of the roof, the safety barrier being the only thing keeping her from her final peace.

 

If she wanted to be stopped, she would soon get her wish, as the door to the roof opened. Her eyes shut, Reika refused to turn around, to look at whoever had walked in on her. Something was set down by whoever found her, then footsteps approached from behind, accompanied by the distinct rattling of a chain.

“...Why are you up here? You sad your crush won't notice you?”

She didn't respond, even though she recognized the gruff, low-pitched voice. Great, as a final insult, her crush would be present to watch her die. She heard Jotaro pick up what had to be her note, which he opened up.

 

Silence, then, those same footfalls and clinking chain approached her. She could feel him behind her.

 

What she didn't expect was to suddenly feel muscular arms wrap around her from behind, gently pulling her away from the edge. Finally, she responded, turning around to look up at him. As soon as she did, he pulled her closer, into a strong, enveloping hug. He didn't say a word as he held her, his grip firm but gentle.

“...You don't want to keep living, do you?”

She shook her head silently as he tightened his hold on her slightly. Then, he asked her a simple question, one that spoke volumes about Jotaro's character.

“Why?”

 

It felt like a floodgate had opened and all the pain she felt, all of her sorrow spilled forth as she broke down, crying as she told him everything that was wrong with her. She hated the boy her mother was forcing her to be with, hated her mother for not caring about her unless it came to who she would spend the rest of her miserable life with, hated her siblings, hated her bullies, hated herself for hating her bullies and siblings, and just...she just hated herself most of all. Jotaro said nothing, only holding her close as she degenerated into mindless sobbing again, shaking a little as she wept.

 

When she finally calmed down somewhat, she tried to hide her tears, wiping them away every time they spilled out until he stopped her.

“...I-I'm sorry. You probably don't care, but...thank you for letting me cry.”

Reika tried to pull away, but he didn't let go, still holding onto her. Then, after a few moments, he spoke.

“You won't live for yourself, will you?”

“What reason do I have to keep going? Nobody will miss me...”

“Live for me.”

She looked up at him, her bangs falling away to expose her eyes as she looked up at Jotaro, their eyes meeting. Glistening turquoise met her amber eyes, his normally stoic, emotionless face betraying sympathy as he looked at her. His eyes were soft, something she had never seen before when it came to the delinquent.

“W-what?”

“Live for me. If you need a reason to keep going, I'll be that reason.”

She tried to protest, but he wouldn't have it, pulling her into another embrace. She could feel the wetness of tears on her neck as he held her close.

 

He was crying. Jotaro Kujo, the strongest student in the school, the boy notorious for taking fights too far, beating up teachers and walking out on bad restaurants without paying them, was crying.

 

He was crying for  _her._

 

* * *

 

 

Jotaro didn't trust Reika to get home herself, so he took her to his place, refusing to leave her side if it was even possible. He claimed it was due to him being afraid she'd 'do something stupid,' as he put it, but deep down it was likely something else. Ultimately, she wound up spending the night in his room, where he watched her for as long as he could before sleep claimed him.

_She looks so peaceful when she sleeps,_ he thought as he studied her sleeping face.  _I don't know why, but I want to protect her. Why the hell would someone want to pick on her anyway? Yeah, she's sad, but those bitches at school are making her feel like shit. Her own fucking mother is doing the same thing. God, I wish I could punch her for that._

 

He took a deep breath to calm himself before resuming his train of thought.

_Maybe I like her. She's been kind to Mom, not to mention she's been trying to hide how she feels from her so she doesn't worry. I think she's afraid of being trouble for me too. She keeps apologizing whenever she starts opening up to me. Guess she figures I don't wanna hear what she has to say. Dumbass, I'm letting you complain because you need it. You need someone to listen._

Eventually, he just let his mind wander as he watched Reika sleep, a tiny smile forming on his lips when he realized how cute she looked and even sounded as she slept. She made little sigh-like noises as she slept. It struck him as adorable, only strengthening his desire to protect her.

 

Eventually, Jotaro drifted off, hoping he could keep helping the girl.

 

When he awoke the following morning, Reika wasn't there. For a second, Jotaro's heart skipped a beat as he panicked. The door opened and she walked in, slightly confused. The second he saw her, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“I got worried when you weren't here,” he admitted.

“...I just went to use the bathroom. You have a huge house,” she replied before sitting down on her futon. Jotaro sighed as he sat down with her, pulling her into his arms.

“I meant what I said. If you won't live for yourself, then live for me.”

Wordlessly, she hugged him. Until she could live for herself, she'd live for him.

 


	2. Grow For Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A single mistake doesn't mean the end. It just means there's a foundation to keep building.

Jotaro was worried when Reika said that she wanted to go with him to Egypt. However, when he looked at the short, petite schoolgirl, he saw a light in her eyes he hadn't seen in her before.

 

There was life in her eyes, a life he couldn't recall having seen in her before.

“Mrs. Kujo's been nothing but sweet and kind to me. I'm not gonna stand here and let her die! My Stand might not be very strong, but maybe I can help in other ways! Please, let me go with you,” she begged.

 

Ultimately, they brought her with them, none of them knowing just what kind of power lay within her, not even Reika herself. The first few conflicts with Stand Users ended up being dealt with by the others, but the first glimpse they got of Reika's abilities came when they found themselves on a huge, strangely empty freighter.

 

She led them directly to the Stand User, having been able to find him due to his bioelectrical field. In fact, this skill proved to be invaluable for them as she led the group from one Stand User to the next. However, for Reika herself, just acting as a Stand-detecting bloodhound wasn't enough. She wanted the chance to truly showcase what she could do.

 

The first true look at what she was capable of came when Jotaro finished off Steely Dan. For once in his life, the stoic mask he put on almost completely shattered. Rage overflowed through his body when The Lovers was finally captured, leaving its cowardly user unable to struggle. It seemed Dan noticed it too, since Jotaro felt so angry he couldn't even focus long enough to get a word out.

 

In that moment, he was bloodthirsty, a berserker fueled by hatred. Hatred for this coward who killed a weak old woman, hatred for this coward who threatened both his own grandfather and an innocent child. He funneled that hatred into Star Platinum, who brutally and swiftly pummeled the assassin into submission. By the time he had been thrown into a building, he was barely alive. Only when the cowardly Stand User was thoroughly tenderized did the sudden surge of anger vanish, leaving Jotaro exhausted yet strangely satisfied. Having regained his sanity, he glanced over at Reika, who was also oddly tired.

 

“K-Kageyama...w-what did you do?”

Panting, she looked up at him through her bangs, barely able to keep standing.

“S-sorry Kujo-san, but...I couldn't stand by and do nothing.”

He was about to open his mouth to speak when he realized what she had likely done. Reflecting on the feelings he experienced when he was turning Dan into a bloody pulp, he realized that there was an anger he didn't originally feel: anger toward the things Dan made him do. Jotaro was pissed at being made to do humiliating things, sure, but not pissed enough to leave his tormentor barely breathing.

 

Reika had funneled her rage into him to strengthen his assault. _She_ was the one furious about Jotaro being abused, the one angry enough to kill. She just didn't have the strength, physical or Stand-wise, to do it.

 

He was about to ask when she finally told him.

“I-I'm sorry, but...I was hoping to punish him. At the last second, I decided to let you do it, but hit him for both of us...to satisfy both of our grudges. I-I wasn't thinking straight! I'm sorry!”

The reality that she could have killed someone and essentially used her friend as the murder weapon suddenly hit as she broke down, remorse striking her with the force of a devastating hurricane. Instinctively, he held the girl close, his anger at being manipulated into beating Dan into the next year being replaced by shock toward her Stand and the power apparently sleeping within her.

 

* * *

 

 

She had withdrawn after the incident with Steely Dan, keeping to herself as she quietly watched the others, fearful of being rejected, of being chastised for nearly taking a life. As she watched them from a distance, she was unaware of how they truly felt. At least, until Jotaro approached her.

 

“Oi, you alright?”

She looked up at him for the first time since the incident.

“Y-you're not afraid?”

“You're scaring me with how you've gotten all quiet, Kageyama. Makes me feel like I did something wrong.”

“No, it's just...I feel like I've done something horrible.”

With a sigh, he sat down and looked at her.

“You controlled me, so yeah, that's fucked up, but I've gotten over that. S'not like you could have done that to him with your Stand.”

Reika was about to apologize for controlling him when he cut her off.

“You got pissed. I get it. You apologized already.”

 

Reika gasped when Jotaro pulled her into his arms in a hug.

“You're not a bad person, Kageyama. Just try to move on from this.”

It didn't seem to help, so he tried something different. He remembered the phrase he used when he saved her from ending her own life that fateful day, those three words which pulled her back from the brink. He decided to use it again, albeit altered.

“Grow for me, Kageyama. Learn from this and move on. You've already changed so much from when we first met. Keep going. Keep changing. Keep growing.”

She looked up at him, blushing as their eyes met. Touching his forehead to hers, he gently touched her cheek, cradling her face with his hand. She stayed in his embrace, her eyes slipping shut as she nodded.

 

Just as he wanted, she would grow for him, like a flower bud that hadn't bloomed for so long. He would soon see the fruit of his labors, all the effort he put into helping Reika become a better person.

 

Soon, the bud would blossom, no doubt revealing that its petals glimmered with stardust.

 


	3. Fight For Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes the meekest of people prove to be the strongest fighters.

Everyone was caught off-guard when the bright and colorful amusement park suddenly shifted into a dark, grungy cityscape bearing a vague resemblance to the famous Shibuya scramble crossing, with rust and grime-covered buildings in various states of decay, a dark sky and random, fleshy patches scattered throughout, some of which oozed with thick blood.

 

While the Crusaders were confused and more than a little scared, it was Death 13 who was truly baffled by the scene change.

“What...what is this?”

It looked around, no doubt frightened, especially when a low, eldritch sound filled the air. The group turned to see a massive shadowy figure looming over them, the near-subsonic noise audible again as the figure stared at them, its red, glowing eyes fixed on the group.

As the group backed up, Jotaro suddenly realized he had hit something hard yet fleshy. Looking over his shoulder, he was greeted by a nightmarish creature, one that bore a strange resemblance to a gorilla-esque monstrosity combined with Star Platinum with barbed wire wrapped around its waist and chest. It turned out that there was something on its back, something alive. Joseph jerked back the instant the thing on the grotesque parody of Star Platinum moved, lifting its disfigured, droopy-skinned head to look at Death 13. Soon, three more monsters showed up, one resembling an emaciated humanoid that constantly smoldered, a nightmarish vulture-esque head seemingly stapled to its neck and body, another resembling a freakish cross between a tapeworm and intestines all tightly coiled together to make a humanoid form and a third looking like a bloody, rusty automaton made from a French suit of armor, a wicked-looking sword attached to its arm.

 

Their horrifying appearances weren't the most shocking part, though. The most shocking part was that none of these abominations attacked them.

“What the fuck is going on?!”

Polnareff was freaking out, especially when the knight-like automaton loomed over him.

“Simple: I'm fighting fire with fire,” a familiar voice replied. The Crusaders and Death 13 looked up to see a short, petite schoolgirl leap down from a high perch, accompanied by a grotesquely colored but familiar-looking Stand.

 

It was Reika, only with an appearance that suited the grungy, rusted, blood soaked terrain. Her white school uniform was soaked with blood and stained with rust, the white stripes on her collar being black instead. Her dark brown hair was excessively long and matted, the whites of her eyes black as unnatural, slitted pupils graced her eyes, neatly bisecting her pupils vertically. Her orange irises glowed unnaturally and blood dripped from her eyes and the corners of her mouth. Miracles was equally altered, with blood and rust staining its little frame and an altered color scheme.

“I was waiting for my chance to strike, kid. I knew this entire time you were the Stand User, and it's a good thing Miracles is always active. You think the things you conjured are horrifying? They're nothing compared to an adult's fears.”

She turned her attention from Death 13 to her friends, fresh blood oozing from the corners of her mouth.

“Those creatures will act as your Stands here. If you really want to get involved in the fight, you can. Otherwise, I'll deal with him myself.”

 

Unsurprisingly, they all stepped in to help as Reika, who they realized had complete control over the dreamscape and was taking full advantage of Death 13, restrained the Stand with the massive shadowy creature, allowing her allies to attack with no trouble, the monsters wielding attacks similar to what they could actually do, from the monstrous Hierophant Green doppelganger blasting a green sludge from sphincter-like holes in its hands that could harden into pellets to the freakish Knight, which served as a replacement for Silver Chariot, showcasing incredible speed despite its bulky appearance. With the overwhelming might Reika possessed in this dreamscape, they were able to stop the mysterious user of Death 13 from killing them. Before the dream faded, Reika was able to explain what they were seeing.

 

“Those creatures all represent each of you, specifically my doubts and fears about all of you,” she told them as the monsters approached her and stood on either side of her.

“I don't want to be seen as a traitor, nor do I want to be seen as worthless. This is the only way I can truly be powerful: in dreams. I guess those fears I have manifested into these creatures, from my fear of angering Jotaro to my fear that Avdol hated me with his last breath.”

 

None of them got the chance to refute her before they all woke up.

 

* * *

 

 

Only Reika, Mannish Boy and Kakyoin had clear memories of what happened, but while the others were recovering and trying to piece together what happened, Jotaro approached the short Stand User, who was much sleepier than the others.

“Reika, did something happen while we were asleep?”

The brunette yawned before she looked at Jotaro, a bleary look in her eyes.

“We were attacked by a Stand User who could infiltrate dreams. You feel like something happened?”

The delinquent was surprised when the short Stand User crawled into his lap, resting her head against one of his pecs.

“Maybe you don't remember what happened, but it doesn't matter. Kakyoin and I fought for all of you. Maybe it's not much, but I feel like I did alright.”

Jotaro just smiled as he hugged her close.

 

He didn't even need to ask her to fight for him, and she did. She was far stronger than she gave herself credit for, and he knew he would probably see more of that strength as their journey continued.

 


End file.
